Sir Keir Starmer said there was “nothing patriotic” about Reform UK’s attitude towards Vladimir Putin as he launched Labour’s local election campaign with a promise to “bring change to Britain”.
The Prime Minister accused the party of “fawning over” the Russian president and mocked the size of its parliamentary ranks, saying its four MPs could “fit into the back of a cab”.
In a sign of how focused Labour is on the threat from Reform at the polls on May 1, Sir Keir said the party “says it wants to run the country” but “can’t even run itself” – a reference to the fallout between MP Rupert Lowe and leader Nigel Farage.
During a speech in Chesterfield on Thursday, he said: “They talk the language of workers’ rights. They talk it alright online, sometimes on the doorstep.
“But what did they do? They voted against banning fire and rehire, they voted against scrapping exploitative zero hour contracts, they voted against sick leave and maternity pay…
“And what about the NHS? They want to charge people for using our NHS.”
Sir Keir added: “There’s nothing patriotic about fawning over Putin.”
The Prime Minister was joined by his deputy Angela Rayner and Labour chairwoman Ellie Reeves as he urged voters to help deliver “the renewal the country needs” by backing its candidates in the party’s first test at the ballot box since entering office.
Labour is focusing its opening pitch to voters on healthcare, pointing to “swift action” taken by the Government to end planned doctors’ strikes by offering an improved pay rise after entering office.
The party says the negotiation of a deal early on has helped spare disruption to hundreds of thousands of appointments, basing that claim on NHS data suggesting 507,000 cancellations occurred between July 2023 and last March during periods of industrial action under the last government.
But the speech was almost entirely overshadowed by Donald Trump’s announcement of global tariffs that sent stock markets tumbling across the globe.
The Prime Minister said the world was “entering a new era” in trade and acknowledged there would be an economic hit to the UK from the 10% import tax slapped on British goods entering the US.
But he insisted imposing retaliatory levies, as the European Union has promised, would be the wrong approach as he seeks to secure a deal with Washington to mitigate the damage to Britain.
The local polls – and a by-election in the Runcorn and Helsby seat vacated by ex-Labour MP Mike Amesbury – will be the first big electoral test for Sir Keir since last July’s general election.
Ballots will be held for 23 councils and six mayoralties in England.
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